# Recap #14: The Ballad of the Comeback Kids
## October 2, 2020
### From gopher.somnolescent.net, the Gopherhole of the weird lightbulb people
This is a little more like it! With the weather cooling down (not here
though, still 60s and 70s galore, guh), the Somnolians have been feeling
vital again. borb and Caby are over their Art Fight fatigue, I'm back to
writing after building that absurdly big *Quake* level (promise you'll get to
play it this year) and feeling *damn good* about it, and--what do you know?
*More Pennyverse!* Much better recap than last month--let's get into it.

---

## Colton has a gun
> The raccoon lad could only stifle a giggle at the new, absurd low the
> descriptions had sunk to. "And then the big slicey robots come in, right?"
> 
> Gonzo grimaced. "Aren't you scared? Don't you know what they'll do to us
> when they find us, little man?"
> 
> "If they find us." It was Colton's turn to stand in front of Gonzo, this
> time with his hands hid behind his back conspicuously. He only smirked,
> his gaze zipping around the tunnel.
> 
> "...I don't get it."
> "You think they'll get to us when we have...one of these?" With his own
> dramatic flair, Colton revealed his right hand, pulling a spindly brass
> pistol from thin air. Various bulbous widgets, thingies, and doodads stuck
> out angularly from the grip and along the length of the gun. A strange
> knob was planted on top in lieu of a sight, and the muzzle stuck out at
> least half the length of the gun itself. To any observer in their right
> mind, it would've looked like a mere toy.
> 
> Gonzo was instead stunned. "T-that's--!" he cried, reaching out limply to
> hold it himself. "A--CICADA."

I apologize for taking center stage this recap, but *hot off the presses, we
have more Pennyverse*. At long last! This one's called "Gonzo the Dissident",
and if you've read any of my stories in the past, this one's a much more fun
read. It's about our resident skittish bong rabbit having a miserable,
oppressive nightmare and Colton cheekily invading it with the Guardian's help
in order to find out what's wrong with him. Action, chases, and fallen trees
ensue.

September was seriously a month in flux for me; I think I've finally gotten
over a lot of the confidence issues that plagued my writing before, stuff
I've already gone over in the relevant Scratchpad entry. What that means for
you is hopefully much more dynamic, interesting stories and characters in
the future. Seriously, if 50s ray guns and playing chicken with helicopters
in an airboat sounds like fun to you, this one's well worth it.

## Caby's cryptids
And the other big project to debut today: The Spooky Zone! Longtime followers
of Caby's various sites might be aware of her various guinea pig characters,
and at long last, Torrone Morbido, the paranoid cryptid hunter extraordinaire
of the bunch (the second one on this recap, go figure...) now has his
permanent little home on her site!

Much like "Gonzo the Dissident", The Spooky Zone has been in the works for a
long time, and man it shows. This one's absolutely packed with information,
tons of lovely painterly illustrations and polaroids, and lots of
personality. The Spooky Zone--plenty of laughs to be had and very creepy
grainy videos of shadows in the sky to be seen.

## The art fight never ends
Also a pleasant surprise: a new addition to borb's site! Seeing as she was
a bit tentative on posting the recent mass of Art Fight stuff to her various
accounts, I was really happy to see her put together a comprehensive archive
of each year that she's participated for her own personal gallery. Like I
said, most of this never got posted outside of the Art Fight site (natch),
so if you're looking for a ton of borb art to peek at, boy has she got just
the thing.

## Festive banners!
And, if you've visited somnolescent.net recently, you might've noticed some
new banners up top! Yes, I've implemented date-checking in the banner
randomizer script, and Caby and borb have come in clutch with three new ones
for the fall season! I really love these. They're bright, vibey, and
inviting. Definitely be on the lookout for new ones as the seasons change!

## Archives sweep
And of course, I throw my own site updates towards the end because they're
the least exciting of the bunch. (In fairness to myself, I spent most of the
month on stories, not on site stuff.) The big site update is the VDU
archives, where I fix up and mirror very old *Quake/Half-Life* modding sites
that either have disappeared or are likely to disappear. The goal is more
usability than total accuracy, so if Cammy has to fudge things a bit, so be
it. More mirrors to come as I find worthy sites.

And smaller but I'm sure no less appreciated if you make videos: I've managed
to rip all the stock music and sound effects from iLife '09 and mirror them
for anyone to grab and use. If you watch a lot of YouTube videos, you've
certainly heard some of this, so hey, why not join the pack?

## Somnocraft!
Well, what's this? The return of the long-dead Somnocraft server? Yes! In
fact, now they've multiplied! We've got two 24/7 servers with happenings at
the moment, a Beta 1.7.3 survival server, and a release 1.8.9 creative
server. They're semi-public, but only for certain trusted IRC regulars.
There'll be a page on the Somnolescent site with more information to follow,
and almost certainly more screenshots to gaze upon too.

Hoo! That was a lot. Got a little pent up there, didn't we? Gotta say, after
the disaster that was last year, I am *very much* looking forward to
Halloween and Christmas this year. Weather's getting chilly, everything is
turning funny colors, Seb's outside in a HAZMAT suit--hold onto that one,
actually.